Relay For Life Team All In Band - Lessons Learned

Okay… I just wanted to capture some thoughts on the night with respect to the band… any comments or feedback, negative or positive, from anybody would be very much appreciated as well as any general or specific thoughts from the band members should be captured, internalized, and we should grow from them…

10:30pm - Setup – Luminaria started at 10pm… roughly around 10:30pm we peeled off from the walk to start setting up…. 10:40pm was around when Kelsey let us start to bring equipment on the stage…
Ryan did a REALLY good job of labeling EVERYTHING and all that hard work paid big dividends for the RFL gig… and will pay even more dividends in the future….
Ryan took point and basically told everyone what to do from helping J set up, or organize cables, or help assemble mic stands, my set up was relatively simple, and so was Joel’s so we ended just doing whatever Ryan told us to do to help expedite. Setup still took a long time. From 10:40pm to about 11:40pm we were setting up. A little too long for my liking, but it was our first time, and there is definitely a learning curve.

11:40pm – Sound Check – Rob was surprised to learn that other than the ear monitors that, me, Ryan, Joel, and Dana have, there would be no monitors. This made it difficult on Rob, Dana, and Jon who didn’t have monitors to work with, but they got through it really well. For the concert, we’ll have monitors I think, so that won’t be an issue. Ryan did all the sound checks in his headphones. J, me, Joel, himself. I planned on doing part of Home to do a real sound check, but I was already tuned down for Fight For Your Right and we didn’t have time for me to tune, run home, then tune again for Fight. Ryan mentioned in retrospect that he forgot to tune his own guitar in all the madness. It should be noted that the night was beautiful with no rain. There were stars in the sky and some of the Luminaria bags were still lit for a nice candlelight effect. But it got very cold and by the time we were about to start, I couldn’t feel my fingers. Also, J plays his drums barefoot, so he must have been freezing with his feet on steel.

Midnight - We ran Fight and that was essentially our sound check because I think Roby needed to be turned up as well as Jon. Arvn was one of the main people who was paying close attention to how we sounded and gave very good feedback mid song as to what needed to happen. That was communicated to Ryan and he adjusted levels on the fly while having a large part of the lyrics. Now that I’m thinking about it, Arvn was so important in that first song and throughout the whole set. He’s a big guy that we can all see from stage, he’s good at getting our attention, he cares about how the music sounds, and he knows how most of the songs go inside and out, down to the nuances of the guitar solos. If he can be one of the main people to communicate with us from the audience AND if he knew how to manipulate the board so Ryan wouldn’t have to, that would be a huge asset. It would free up Ryan mentally where he could just worry about performing, and it would help ensure that the sound we’re putting out is quality. After they got the kinks out, the rest of the song went well. I stepped on my bass tuner twice in this song while moving around because it was behind me. Stepping on the tuner cuts my feed so I had to slide the tuner further back mid song. J did a good job stretching out the rock ending for me to tune for the Hard to Handle intro and vamp.

Hard to Handle Intro and Vamp – This I thought went well. Rob did a good job. J’s fill was the key to signal coming out of the vamp and into the song.

In Bloom – Clean and strong and fun to play. Vocals were excellent. But I heard a few comments that the slower pace of this song slowed down our momentum. It was cool to see so many people singing along though.

Creep – Also clean and well executed. I really enjoy the vocals where Ryan has no choice but to go for it. I also heard a few comments that because of the particularly slow pace of this song, that the crowd started to lose interest. Kind of makes sense since we were in a celebratory mood, and the song is slow and completely self-deprecating. I could see the energetic aura of the crowd dwindle significantly.

Wherever You Will Go – This song began the madness. The way that I saw it, when Joel started this song with the nice guitar picking, his lower strings were causing resonant frequencies somewhere in the system. J’s snare drum was adding to this issue but he was trying to stop it and I honestly think that was only 20% of the problem. I spoke to Gary afterwards describing the issue and he said that in his experiences what he would have done was have somebody turn down the lower to mid frequencies of Joel’s amp if it had an EQ. But this issue had a deep effect on the overall song as we were all visibly scrambling to make things right. To me that hurts because the beginning is so beautiful and the crowd did not get to experience how awesome the guitar picking was. Also, I’m not sure, but I think it was at this point that Ryan discovered that he might not be in tune since this was the first time he needed to play the guitar for a song. He had lead vocals on Fight, piano on Hard to Handle, and lead vocal on In Bloom and Creep. So he was looking down and tuning while Arvn was trying to send signals on what needed to be adjusted, I think he was hoping for Joel’s mic to be turned up. I was whispering to Ryan what Arvn wanted, but since Ryan can only hear what’s being spoken into the mics, he couldn’t hear me. So I eventually needed to kick his calf, communicate what Arvn wanted, and then he adjusted the board accordingly. This tells me that I really need to also know how to manipulate the board and gain Ryan’s trust in that I’m doing what’s right for the song based on visual feedback from the crowd. It also tells me that ear monitors are great but also rather detrimental when band members are trying to communicate by surreptitiously whispering on stage. Also the location of the sound board was based on proximity to the main mixer we were plugging in to. It could have easily been on the other side of the stage where it would have been up to Joel to see the audience cues and manipulate the board accordingly. This would all be remedied with a wise and dedicated sound man, but we don’t have that. Maybe Arvn could be that for the concert. Taking that responsibility off of Ryan’s plate will help him focus on just having to perform. But watching the other bands earlier in the day, none of them had sound people and they all had band members manipulating the board on the fly also. So we just have to be able to adapt to anything, and if there are people available to help, use them well.

Big Me – I thought this went well. Before the performance, J mentioned that he wanted to change the words, “.. I fell into..” that’s repeated a lot in the chorus to , “I’m All In too…” to just show that we were part of the All In Team. But, he forgot on the first chorus and I didn’t. But that reminded J and he did it on the next chorus but I thought he changed it back so I reverted and we were off again. That basically happened throughout the rest of the song, us switching on the fly and only singing it the same a couple times. We should probably say when there’s a mess up like that, that we should always default to what we’ve been doing in practice. J also mentioned that he was blanking on the words right before the song started. That’s when I’m happy we practiced so hard because really we need to be working from just muscle memory during the performances and allowing ourselves to adapt to different situations when possible.

Accidentally In Love – I thought this went well. Very very empty without the beginning piano and harmonies. Not sure if Ryan had to adjust my vocal levels at all. Handing the bass to Ryan was a little awkward because of all the wireless wires hanging about. He ended up just plugging in his wireless guitar input into my bass I think. I can’t quite remember now. Spencer said he’s never heard the song before. Mid song, I vaguely recall that my ear monitors fell out and dangled to the floor. I think Ryan picked them up for me and I ended up just holding the ear buds in my left hand while I sang the song in the mic in my right hand. I think for the concert I might tape the buds to my shirt so they don’t go too far if they fall out.

Talk Dirty To Me – This was a tragedy. Not in that the song didn’t go well, it’s just that when Joel had to switch to J’s tuned down guitar, he took J’s guitar out of the holder, then put his guitar in, but when he turned, his ear monitor wire caught the holder and pulled the guitar down. Joel picked up the guitar and holder and went through with the song. At this point in time, we didn’t know the extent of the damage.
The song overall went well I thought. The vocals were nice and J’s harmonies were nice. I can’t remember if Ryan may have come in early on the vocals for this, but I do remember J and I making eye contact and being a little confused.

Hey Jealousy – When Joel switched back for Hey Jealousy he showed me the scratch at the neck. I thought that it was just a scratch at that point. We got through the song well. I think the crowd liked it.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot – At this point I’m not sure if Joel knew that his guitar neck was cracked. I think Ryan playing rhythm probably covered up the fact that Joel’s guitar might be getting slowly out of tune. I messed up the high harmonies very badly. I couldn’t hit them and it showed. Halfway through I just gave up on trying. I need to practice a LOT more before I could play and sing the harmonies well for that song. The notes are on the very edge of my range.

Basketcase – It was at this point we all discovered how badly broken Joel’s guitar was. His guitar went way out of tune because of the broken neck. Since he started the song alone and because we practiced it so much, we all could kind of tell. We got through the song and I think the crowd enjoyed it. I think all of the band was worried about Joel’s guitar though. This should have been the end of the set. We played 11 songs and that only brought us to 12:35am I think. It’s either we were rushing the songs which is likely based on adrenaline. Or we allotted too much time for intros. I was of the opinion that we should have gotten off the stage because I didn’t want to play Home, or All I Want, or Chasing Cars because they were too slow and we have a broken guitar. I think Joel mentioned that we should do Lose Yourself, the rest of the band agreed, and it was a great call.

Lose Yourself – All the kids knew the song and could sing along. Ryan did a really good job performing it. With some goading the kids came right up to the stage and yelled and screamed and jumped. When I got a little crazy jumping up and down, my ear monitors ripped out of the receiver and went flying. Afterwards, the crowd was fine with us not playing anymore.

Big Lessons Learned
Labeling everything is HUGE.

A reliable sound man would free up Ryan and be a big asset. We would need that person to assess what the mix needs and adjust the board accordingly. I think Arvn might be able to do this.

Protect our gear. I spoke to a co-worker today and he said that Epiphone would probably not help with Joel’s guitar. (Even though I think they should.) He also said that insurance would probably not cover it unless there was a specific rider. But that rider would probably cover the gear wherever it went. Hmm… Now that I think about it, maybe we should declare all band gear is Ryan’s, have him put it on his insurance, and pay him yearly…. Might be worth talking about if Ryan was down…

ALWAYS always have more songs ready to play for an encore.

We should have an acoustic set to play all throughout the day by the tent. Ryan made some money playing requests and not playing at all.

Eric Lessons Learned
Tape your ear buds to your shirt in case they fall out. Or something so they don’t just dangle to the floor.
Move your tuner far far away behind you so you don’t step on it.
On cold nights, have hand warmers in your pocket maybe so you can still feel your fingers and the strings.

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Relay For Life Setlist - MidnightEric Tuned Down
Fight For Your Right – Ryan, Rob, Jon
At rock ending, Eric Tunes to Regular Tuning

Hard To Handle Vamp and Intro
J Drum Starts
Rob thanks Jon and introduces band
When Rob says, “…. Team All In…”, instruments cut…
J starts Hard To Handle and instruments come in normally
Hard to Handle - Rob
In Bloom – Ryan, high harms - J
Creep - Ryan
Wherever You Will Go – Joel, high harms - Eric
Big Me – J, high harms - Eric
Short Intro Eric for Accidentally In Love….
I’m going to say something like, “Hey guys… my favorite lines from the song I’m about to sing is, ‘These lines of lightning mean we’re never alone, never alone’… They’re my favorite because they remind me in the fight against cancer that we’re all in this together, we’re not alone, and together we can beat this thing. I’m honored to participate in Relay with all of you and I’m proud to be a part of the best Relay in Michigan!”
Accidentally In Love - Eric
Intro Ryan for Talk Dirty to Me because Joel needs to switch to a tuned down guitar or needs to tune down
Talk Dirty to Me – Ryan, high harms – J, Dana’s in the hole (two songs away, she needs to be close to the stage)
Hey Jealousy – Ryan, Dana’s on deck (her song is next, she should be just off stage and ready to go)

Short Intro Ryan to Introduce DanaHit Me With Your Best Shot – Dana, high harms - Eric
Short Intro Ryan for Basketcase to thank Dana and also because I need to tune down my bass
Basketcase – Ryan, high harms - Eric